FEZ vs FKU

FEZAState Street SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF

FKUDFirst Trust United Kingdom AlphaDEX Fund

In short

FEZ Fifty eurozone blue chips, one ticker, running since 2002. FEZ is the long-standing US-listed route into the euro area's biggest companies, and it charges well below the typical index fund in its peer group.

FKU Most UK funds hand you the London giants in order of size. FKU runs a rules-based screen on growth and value metrics instead, then reweights about 80 British stocks by rank. Same market, very different slice. Live since 2012.

Stated mandate

FEZ The fund seeks to deliver total returns that generally correspond to the EURO STOXX 50 Index before fees and expenses.

FKU The fund seeks investment results that generally correspond to the price and yield performance of the Nasdaq AlphaDEX United Kingdom Index before fees and expenses.

Why people hold it

• FEZ Charges 0.29% a year against a 0.45% median for index-tracking funds in its cohort.
• Trading since 2002 and among the more actively traded names in its group, so the cost of getting in and out tends to be modest on top of the fee.
• Simple job, plainly stated: match the EURO STOXX 50 Index before fees. About 50 holdings, quarterly distributions, no tilts or overlays bolted on.
• A $1B-$5B fund from SPDR with a clean structural record and no red flags on the wrapper, which is rare staying power for a single-region equity product.

• FKU Not a cap-weighted clone: the AlphaDEX rules rank UK stocks on growth and value metrics, so the market's biggest names don't automatically get the biggest weights.ftportfolios.com
• Holds about 80 British stocks, one of the better-balanced portfolios among single-country Europe funds, so no single name carries the whole thing.
• Running since 2012 against a published Nasdaq index, so the selection rules are public and there's a long live record to inspect. Distributions come quarterly.

Worth knowing

• FEZ About 50 names in one currency bloc. That concentration puts it at the more volatile end of its peer group, and a few European mega-caps drive a lot of the result.
• It's a regional slice, not a whole-market holding. Broad global trackers such as VT run 0.06% and reach far wider.
• Returns arrive through euro-area shares, so the euro-dollar exchange rate is part of the ride for a US investor. Nothing in the mandate hedges it away.

• FKU The 0.80% expense ratio sits at the high end for single-country Europe funds (DAX charges 0.20%, EWL 0.50%), and it's the main reason this one lands in the lower tier of the group.
• Thinly traded on a small asset base, so spreads can be wider and sizeable orders push the price around more than in the category's household names.
• One country, one market: UK equity only, so British economic and political news sets the tone. The factor screen also means it can look nothing like the headline UK index.

Full FEZ profile⁠

Full FKU profile⁠